Jani puts Swiss team on A1 roll

Published on Sunday 11 December 2005 01:48

NEEL Jani secured Switzerland's second consecutive A1 Grand Prix pole position in Dubai yesterday to give him hope of ending France's winning streak.

The French team, who have alternated their driver between Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Premat, have won eight straight races to establish a 27-point lead over Switzerland approaching the halfway point in the season. Jani has impressed this year but is yet to stand on the top step of the podium. Lapierre took his turn at the wheel of the French car and rescued second on the grid despite problems early in qualifying.

A1GP's complicated qualifying system takes the best two laps from four short sessions and Lapierre entered the final session with only one lap in the book. However, he overcame that pressure to claim second place while Ireland's Ralph Firman showed stunning form to earn third. He will start alongside Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr, the only non-Frenchman to win a race this season.

Piquet pipped Great Britain's Robbie Kerr in the final session, dropping the Englishman down to fifth place. Germany's Adrian Sutil was sixth.

Yorkshireman Adam Khan, driving for Pakistan, has a tough job in store today if he is to add to his adopted country's four points so far. The Bridlington-born driver qualified 20th.

Jani admitted the curtailed first session, which was stopped due to an accident involving Mexico's Salvador Duran, had threatened his chances. He said: "It was a very exciting qualifying session. We had a difficult morning and many problems.

"I'm really happy with taking pole position again and I hope we can capitalise on it and take our first win."